Life & Style

Simplify The Holidays

With all the cooking and prepping for your family gathering making sure that every detail is just as perfect as you envisioned…let’s be REAL, nothing is ever perfect in the real world, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have things your way. Having things your way doesn’t mean you have to stress

yourself out, pull out any hair or cry over spilled milk. So this is the time to do some strategic planning on how to have a smooth holiday. Don’t beat yourself up, with trying to plan…just

take some small steps to simplify your life and have a great holiday while being an awesome hostess.

Here’s a few tips to help you get through the holidays gathering without dropping a sweat and still have time to mingle with guests.

Here’s 11 tips to simplify your LIFE.

1. While cooking holiday dinner it’s more easier to wash as you go. I like to make sure that all dishes are washed while cooking, that saves time and helps me to keep order in the kitchen

2. Cut down kitchen time by prepping your sides the day before and you’ll have less time to worry about what to do next.

3.Try out new reciepes. Bring something new and exciting to your table.

4. Everything is better the day before the BIG day. Prep everything ahead of time making it much easier to get things flowing on the BIG day.

6. Don’t spend a fortune on decorations. Head to the dollar store and pick up a few items to use as a center piece that’s fun, cute, festive and cheap.

7. Create a fabulous dessert table with already baked cakes, cookies and add a fun twist to them by adding candy sprinkles and frosting to cookies, cut cake into pieces to have lil petie fours. Have fun and be creative.

8. Don’t get boggled down by what to wear. Dress comfortably and have fun.

9. After everyone has eaten and got full, head to the kitchen and clean it while guests are enjoying the festivities. Freeing up your time to enjoy your guests and party.

10. Guests love to take home a plate, so why not make it easy and hassle free for yourself. Have everything in to go containers so your guests can serve themselves. No piles of dirty dishes in your sink.

11. End the night with a skinny girl cocktail, kick up your feet…you made it girl without any stress!!!!

These tips are tried and true cause I do them myself. After taking the time to shop and cook, it’s really easy to get lost in transition when the holidays come around. Bit by bit you can have an awesome holiday gathering without all the sweat, tears and craziness that comes along with it. If you take time to draw up a plan you can make things sooo much more enjoyable when you simplify your life. Happy Holidays!

Winter weather can cause all kinds of damage on your skin. It can cause dry, chapped, flaky skin both on your face and body. A skin-care regimen that worked during the warm, humid temperatures may not yield the same result in the cold of winter. In order to maintain healthy skin in lower humidity levels, its best to winterize your skin care routine. A couple of tips to do this!

Protect Your Skin

Keep your skin covered as much as possible when outdoors to retain some moisture in your skin. Wear hats, gloves, scarves….

Switch Cleansers

You may need to consider switching from your regular facial cleanser. It may be too harsh for the cold drying air. Consider switching to a gentle non-soap skin cleanser and cut back on exfoliating .

Moisturize Your Skin

Hydration is essential to keeping your skin healthy, especially in winter weather. For your face make sure to apply a good moisturizer after cleansing the skin. You may even opt to add a serum containing hyaluronic acid this will help seal in the moisture prior to applying your regular moisturizer. Don’t neglect the rest of your body. Don’t skimp on a good moisturizer or lotion for the body as well.

Sunscreen

the sun also rises in winter and winter sun can be just as damaging as in the summer. Make sure to apply suncreen and to use products that contain sunscreen to protect your skin from the damaging sun even in the winter.

Don’t forget your lips!

Make sure to look for a moisturizing balm that contains sunscreen. there is nothing worse than dry cracked, chapped lips.

Looking for some products for your winter skincare regimen. Here are a couple of products that I have in my regimen

Bare Escentuals Deep Foaming Cleanser

Bobbi Brown Intensive Skin Supplement

Bobbi Brown Hydrating Face cream

Bare Escentuals Moisturing Face Creme

Bobbi Brown Hydrating Eye Cream/ Bobbi Brown Extra Repair Eye Cream

Chapstic

Vaseline intensive care lotion

The Great Makeup DEBATES!

Let me start by saying, first of all that the purpose of makeup is to enhance one’s inner beauty. This not to say that makeup should make you look like someone you are not. If you have a feature you want to highlight like your lips then you could use makeup to play that feature up. Maybe its your eyes throw on a nice shadow that compliments your eye color, a liner to make your eyes pop and a great mascara and you are ready to go!!! Women wear makeup because it makes them feel good about themselves. I’ve noticed much debate over these topics in the last few months…

Do men prefer women with or without makeup?

I personally think most men appreciate that extra attention. They love the fact that we took the time to prime ourselves. They like it subtle, sexy, sophisticated, natural, not overly made up. However they do appreciate our attention to the details…right down to the small ones. The most important thing is how you feel your makeup should be and it should enhance your natural beauty.

First you have to learn to LOVE & APPRECIATEYOU. What is it do you love about yourself and draw from there. You shouldn’t look like you had a box of crayola explode all over your face. The goddess that’s inside you should be staring back at you.

Don’t get me wrong I LOVE dramatic makeup, but I know when to tone it down. At the end of the day…your natural beauty will always shine from within and you can always face that goddess.

It’s Contradictory to have Natural Hair and wear makeup?

I will just say that you are a woman, natural or fake if putting on some lip gloss, lashes, weaves, contacts, whatever creams your Twinkies do it. Ladies go natural for all different reasons. Some of us it’s about embracing our hair and not conforming and chemically altering it to please other people. Message here, do what makes you happy. If putting on makeup makes you happy, then have fun be creative and be merry.

When should my daughter start to wear makeup?

I have mom’s who ask can I do their 10 year old daughters makeup or they are buying hundreds of dollars worth of makeup and not one bottle of skin care. As a makeup artist and a mother of 3 girls, I much rather we teach our girls first of all how to properly care for their skin. If your skin is healthy and clear then they wouldn’t feel the need to mask it.

Makeup doesn’t fix whats wrong on the inside. If your daughter has severe acne- makeup won’t treat it, just merely covers it up. Teach our girls the importance of a good healthy diet, exercise and proper skin care for healthy, clear skin. When the time allow for her to wear makeup, she’ll know how to properly apply it. Anyone 15 years old should not have their makeup applied in the same fashion as a 30 year old woman. Nor should anyone girl under the age of 15 years old should not have any makeup applied to their gentle, young tender skin. Teaching our girls that if and when you wear makeup…that less is more. Allow them to be little girls before dressing and painting them as grown women before their time.

My 14 year old, and she is learning skin care and how to apply makeup without over doing it. Other than that, lip gloss and nail polish is her thing. I’m not telling anyone how to raise their kids, but just a few words of caution when it comes to makeup. Help her to love herself unconditionally, unselfishly, apologetically. Knowing that makeup is only an enhancer to enhance her natural god given beauty. Moms it’s our jobs to teach and guide them.

10 Makeup Must Haves for Women of Color

MOTIVES foundation comes in a wide range of shades, natural looking (not cakey or heavy), different formulas for different skin types others I like Motives, Makeup ForeverHD and Smashbox Studio Skin

A good skin care system, whatever brand works best for you (at least a cleanser and moisturizer) I prefer the old school version…Noxzmea & Ponds Dry Skin Hydrating Moisturizer

Take care of your skin, makeup only looks as good as the skin. You want people to say you look great not your makeup looks great. That means cleanse and hydrate your skin daily with skin care products.

Rely strictly on the diagram on the back of your eyeshadow compact. Not everyone’s tone is the same, not everyone’s features are the same. So what looks one way on the model wearing the palette will MOST likely not look identical on you

Forget the brows a finished makeup look isn’t complete without properly groomed brows. ( I DON’T LEAVE MY HOME WITHOUT MY BROWS DONE. IT FRAMES AND SET SETS YOUR FACE.)

Line the lips using a black liner, draws attention and doesn’t blend and usually leaves a line long after the lipstick or gloss is go (NOT A GOOD MOVE)

Makeup looks for the holiday season

Stand out from the party crowd with these glamorous makeup looks. Which look will you be ROCKING.

Preened and Polished
“Foundation should look like skin.” – Makeup artist Eliano Bou Assi (Bobbi Brown)
Get the look: To create the perfect base, first prep your skin with a moisturizer before applying your liquid foundation. It’s important to find your true match of foundation – if it’s lighter than your skin, it will make your complexion look grey and if it’s dark

Retro Glam
“To create a cat-eye look, apply eyeliner across the top lash line and flick up at the corners.” – Makeup artist Vimi Joshi (MAC)
Get the look: A 60s eye works for any party occasion, and once you’ve mastered your eyeliner, the rest of the look is super easy to achieve. If you have trouble applying either a liquid or kohl liner, use this…take a compact mirror and hold it in front of you at the waist, look down with both eyes, so that they both are slightly open and apply your liner.

Shimmer Goddess
“Add a copper tone to the outer corner and crease of your eye.”
– Makeup artist Tanya Rex (Mikyajy)
Get the look: Perfect for party season, the key to getting the shimmer look right is to make sure you are more grown-up glow rather than teenage glitter. Once you’ve achieved your base, give eyes the once over with shimmering shades of rich browns, plums, coppers and golds. Build up your darkest color so that it will blend into the crease of the eyes. Skip blush, add a dust of shimmer bronzer across the cheeks and anywhere the sunlight touches the skin. For lips, no need for matte lipstick, go for a lip gloss that’s full of shine and staying power.